At the Tuesday night Cinema Society and Chopard-hosted screening of her new film, Disorder, a taut psychological thriller starring Diane Kruger and Matthias Schoenaerts, the award-winning writer (Mustang) and director (Augustine) Alice Winocour told a story about one of her earlier efforts. “The first time I was invited to show my film, a short film, in the U.S., it was for the Brooklyn Film Festival, and when I arrived, the cinema was empty,” Winocour told the audience assembled at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema, which, as it contained more than one theater actor (Mary Poppins’s Laura Michelle Kelly, and Brandon Victor Dixon, who has taken over Leslie Odom Jr.’s role as Aaron Burr in Hamilton, among them) was able to fully empathize, and groaned in sympathy. “There was just one person, a woman, in the cinema. And I said, ‘Okay, it doesn’t matter.’ But the woman said, ‘Okay, we’re going to do a Q&A after the film.’ And I said, ‘You know, are you sure?’ And she said, ‘Yes! Definitely!’ And it was a short film, but the woman in the audience had so many questions, and she really loved the film, and was really into it, and said, ‘You’re a great filmmaker,’ and I was really happy; it doesn’t matter if it’s only one person, at least she loved the film. And then after, she came to me, and said, ‘I’m a very, very close friend of your mother, so say hello to her!’ And I was like—‘fuck.’ So,” Winocour continued, as the audience roiled with laughter, “I hope tonight that you are not my mother’s friends . . .”
“They’re my friends!” Kruger, clad in a short flouncy frock by Alexander McQueen, interjected with a giggle. “Maybe you’re her friends,” allowed Winocour, “but at least there are more of you than the first time. That is a little step!” And though the film, which follows a substance-abusing French soldier—afflicted with both PTSD and persistent home invaders bent on capturing his charge, Kruger, and turning her palatial summer home into a ball of horrors—is not the lightest of fare, it drew the likes of Georgina Chapman, Prabal Gurung, and Taryn Manning to the premiere and subsequent party to sip Qui cocktails at The James hotel’s rooftop bar, Jimmy; one of many more successful steps to come.